One month after we complained that Disney’s Star Wars panel at Comic-Con 2015 was a bit of a letdown, spreading the Cult of Enthusiasm but holding back on anything resembling actual news, the studio seems to have doubled down. Their Star Wars presentation at their own D23 convention in Anaheim, CA came with major updates about the movie franchise, and Disney’s efforts to expand the Star Wars universe into the real world… sort of.
Related: What If ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Sucks?
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Disney released the first cast picture from Gareth Edwards’ newly retitled Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. It now seems that the spin-off films in the new Star Wars movie franchise will each be called “A Story Wars Story” instead of as an “Anthology” installment, as had been previously reported.
The new press release for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story confirms the film’s December 16, 2016 release date and the film’s plot, “which tells the story of resistance fighters who have united to steal plans to the dreaded Death Star.”
LucasFilm president Kathleen Kennedy has released a statement about Rogue One, in which she describes the film as “[going] into new territory, exploring the galactic struggle from a ground-war perspective while maintaining that essential Star Wars feel that fans have come to know. Gareth is such an innovative director and I’m so excited to be working with him and the extraordinary ensemble cast he’s selected for ‘Rogue One.'”
The cast now includes Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything), Diego Luna (Milk), Donnie Yen (Ip Man), Mads Mikkelsen (Hannibal), Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland), Jiang Wen (Gone with the Bullets), Riz Ahmed (Nightcrawler), and Alan Tudyk (Firefly), who will be playing a motion-capture character. Most of the cast can be seen in this new official photo, below.
LucasFilm/Disney
Star Wars: Episode IX – The New Director
Universal Pictures
Disney has officially announced that the director of Star Wars: Episode XI, the final film in the latest trilogy (not including the “Star Wars Stories”), will be Colin Trevorrow, the director of this summer’s blockbuster Jurassic World. Trevorrow will follows J.J. Abrams on Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens, and Rian Johnson (Looper) on Star Wars: Episode XIII.
Star Wars at Disneyland AND Disney World
LucasFilm
In an announcement most fans have been expecting ever since Disney purchased LucasFilm back in 2012, there will soon be Star Wars “lands” at both the Disneyland park in Anaheim, CA and Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, FL.
Each land is expected to take up 14 acres, where they will “[transport] guests to a never-before-seen planet, a remote trading port and one of the last stops before wild space where Star Wars characters and their stories come to life.”
Walt Disney Company Chairman and CEO Bob Iger described the new attractions: “We are creating a jaw-dropping new world that represents our largest single themed land expansion ever. These new lands at Disneyland and Walt Disney World will transport guests to a whole new Star Wars planet, including an epic Star Wars adventure that puts you in the middle of a climactic battle between the First Order and the Resistance.”
Another key attraction at the parks will put fans at the controls of Han Solo’s ship, The Millennium Falcon, where they will “take on a customized secret mission.”
Disney’s stranglehold on the popular culture will no doubt proliferate and flourish in the years to come, so if these announcements excite you, stick around. It’s only going to get bigger from here.
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and watch him on the weekly YouTube series Most Craved and What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
